Sunday Moon, Venus and M45

[Thefatkitty]

Yesterday (Sunday) was exceptionally warm at 16C (60F). Of course, it rained all day, but better than snow I guess. After a somewhat late dinner at 7:30, I looked out and saw that it was clear.
Well, at least to the west it was. Stepping out and taking stock of it all, it was clear to the west, very cloudy to the north, hazy to the south, and the east was hard to tell as the house blocks most of that view. Still, to the west as I said and overhead was fairly clear.

I could see the Moon near Aldebaran, with Venus just below the Pleiades.
I know that Venus is going to slide into M45 over the next few days (April 3rd?), and of course it will be cloudy for me when that spectacle comes to pass. How do I know this? Because I am an amateur astronomer (heavy emphasis on the amateur part, friends) and by default, this makes me a "Murphy's Law" weather forecaster. If there is some astronomical event I really want to see, then the night it comes to pass will have crappy weather due to Murphy's Law. Based on this, I can make uncannily accurate forecasts months in advance. I try and look upon it as a gift...!!

By the time I got to the basement, I knew what I was going to haul outside. My barn door tracker and my "Towatron"; a 60mm Celestron cut down to F/7, with the original objective replaced with a Towa cemented-doublet objective from a Tasco 55VTE.
Equipment like this is the reason I'm a loner in this hobby...
Taking one item in each hand, out the door I went. Such portability.



The Towatron, whom I believe wants to be an ST80 when it grows up, is a great little scope for wide-field views. In hooking up my cropped-sensor Canon T3, I have found the field of view with all that is just under 5 degrees in the long side of the frame. I have a Flickr page full of Moon/planetary conjunctions I've taken over the years with this thing.
My intention was to see if I could get ol' Luna and Aldebaran in the same field of view.
That was not to be; the whole deal just missed fitting in by a degree or so. Well, I'm here anyways, so I took a few shots of the Moon and ran it all later on through PIPP, AS2 with some mild tweaking in Registax.
I love this scope for the views and single shots. However, for stacked Lunar shots, methinks my long f/l achro's do a better job by far...



Having done that, I unhooked the camera from the scope, took it inside, and replaced the T-ring with the stock 18-55mm lens it came with. I went back out, and fiddled with the lens, focusing on Venus. As I stood up, I heard a rustling in the tree I was standing next to. Looking up, I saw and took a pic of this:



The furball seemed stressed that I was there, so I meandered off to the back door while my four-legged neighbor made it's way out of the tree and down the path. As he wandered off, I thought his chances for survival were pretty good, seeing as how light traffic is lately...

I hooked the camera to my tracker. Then it dawned on me as I had obviously forgotten... The north view was still covered in clouds. I can't see Polaris.
Well, the last time I was out here, I had the tracker in the same spot. I remembered that when I did this the first time that Polaris was just to the right of a fork in the branches of the tree next door. So, I just aimed for the same spot! Yup, there's the fork in the branches, Polaris is probably right... about... there! And that's what I convinced myself.

I adjusted the camera so that it was pointing in the direction of Venus and M45.
I set the camera to ISO 800, hoping to get a "cleaner" shot, given the warm temps and my LP. I have found that with the spring I installed between the two arms that the resistance is much better; it's just easier to get those 1 second increments. I took 3 pictures ranging from 30 seconds to 10. Not a lot of detail, so I put the camera to ISO 1600, and tried a few more shots.
All the while I'm counting in my head, "one mississippi, two mississippi..." Oh, the accuracy of it all

I noticed as I set my T3 to ISO 1600 that the once-clear west view was now getting somewhat saturated with white fluffies. Of course. I had a few more targets in mind, but the clouds had me in mind. Oh well.

Before I packed it all in, I swung the camera around on the tracker and took some unguided shots of the Moon and Aldebaran and company. By this time the clouds were really thickening up. Inside I went.

In taking a look at the pictures that came off the camera, all eight I took on the tracker were literally perfect. Not so much for focus and lack of dust on my lens/sensor, but for the actual tracking itself. Nice round stars, and the first time I have managed to manually track anything for 30 seconds. I'm gonna have me some fun this summer with this thing at a dark-sky location!

Alright. If you have read this far without your eyes bleeding or developing a migraine, I admire your perseverance and I will end the pain and suffering

This is Venus and M45 at ISO 800, 30 seconds exposure at f/25:



Same target, but at ISO 1600, 25 seconds exposure at f/25 with the clouds rolling in:



I was rather happy with these, even though the LP and sensor noise is so evident. All I really wanted was round stars, so I came away very pleased. The mechanics of it work, now I just need some skies to work with....

And for the heck of it, here's the Moon with Aldebaran just below at the 7 o'clock position. I just pointed the camera and took a seven-second exposure; no tracking. Fun.



That was my night. It lasted about an hour, and I was happy for something to do beside climb the walls. I don't need to tell you how bored we're getting lately....

I hope all of you are faring well during all of this. I also hope you manage to get some clear skies this week, and maybe some shots of Venus meeting up with the Seven Sisters!

All the best,

[Dragonsfire]

Awesome Night ! Congrats
+18c over here too, heading back to -15c Tomorrow lol.

[OhNo]

How did ya accomplish the diffraction spikes? Good night and images given your location.

BTW Your not the only Canuck that uses the TLAR (That Looks About Right) for Polar alignment!

[Thefatkitty]

Awesome Night ! Congrats
+18c over here too, heading back to -15c Tomorrow lol.

Thanks Neil, it was nice to get out, if even for only a bit. Back to -15, OMG... It's supposed to stay warm here all week, though soggy throughout. Hope you have better luck!

How did ya accomplish the diffraction spikes? Good night and images given your location.

BTW Your not the only Canuck that uses the TLAR (That Looks About Right) for Polar alignment!

Thanks Brent; as for the diffraction spikes, I believe all or most camera lenses will do that depending on the f-stop the lens is at. There's a good article about it here. Yeah, not bad given my bortle 7-8 skies and clouds
TLAR!! Good description and sometimes it even works pretty good!

Hope you're both well and stay healthy!

All the best,

[terrynak]

Good to see you back out Mark. I notice you have an Astromaster alt-az mount with your Towatron. This is the mount I use on my smaller scopes when I don't feel the need for using slo-mo controls.

[notFritzArgelander]

Very nice you had a good outing!

[Bigzmey]

Thanks for the fun report and pics Mark!

[Juno16]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post Mark!
Sounds like you had a great time. You had a nice time out with your toys. Collected some really cool images too!

Great little wide field scope.

Thanks for sharing!

[Thefatkitty]

Good to see you back out Mark. I notice you have an Astromaster alt-az mount with your Towatron. This is the mount I use on my smaller scopes when I don't feel the need for using slo-mo controls.

Thanks Terry, oh yeah, it was nice to get out for a bit! Good eye on that as well; it is indeed an Astromaster mount. I bought it and the scope for $25 at a local swap shop. Seeing as how I already have two Japanese-made 60mm's at f/11.6, I thought to try something with this:



I took the objective from an old Tasco with a click-stop focuser,



And ended up with this at f/7 on the same mount. BTW, the lens cell cover, though orange, has nothing to do with Celestron.... We just have a goldfish



And BTW, all I have is refractors and reflectors; hence my interest in your awesome Mak!

Very nice you had a good outing!

Thanks nFA, it was indeed a good time and a nice break. I hope your next door hound and owner are practising "social distancing", the one time it would really be to your benefit

Thanks for the fun report and pics Mark!

No problem Andrey, and thanks for your views (literally) on Venus!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post Mark!
Sounds like you had a great time. You had a nice time out with your toys. Collected some really cool images too!

Great little wide field scope.

Thanks for sharing!

No worries Jim, it's not like I don't have the time at the moment Hope you, the missus and Jack are all good and you get some clear skies!

[terrynak]

Good to see you back out Mark. I notice you have an Astromaster alt-az mount with your Towatron. This is the mount I use on my smaller scopes when I don't feel the need for using slo-mo controls.

Thanks Terry, oh yeah, it was nice to get out for a bit! Good eye on that as well; it is indeed an Astromaster mount. I bought it and the scope for $25 at a local swap shop. Seeing as how I already have two Japanese-made 60mm's at f/11.6, I thought to try something with this:



I took the objective from an old Tasco with a click-stop focuser,



And ended up with this at f/7 on the same mount. BTW, the lens cell cover, though orange, has nothing to do with Celestron.... We just have a goldfish



And BTW, all I have is refractors and reflectors; hence my interest in your awesome Mak!

Thanks for sharing the pics, Mark! My Astromaster alt-az I actually bought as a standalone mount - Celestron no longer sells them on their own. All of the other Astromaster scopes I bought were on EQ mounts. Unfortunately, both my Astromaster EQ CG3 mounts shortly had mechanical problems and no longer work azimuthally.

That finder on the old Tasco looks like a peep finder - I have one of those on my old 60's Sears straight-through viewing scope.

Glad you like my Mak! Got it on sale for $169 back in 2012 - its actually a spotting scope so I had to replace the prism diagonal with a dielectric star diagonal.